'Trump's lawlessness': Cornell University student describes why he fled US
A British-Gambian PhD student who fled the United States after immigration officers tried to deport him for his pro-Palestine activism has said his decision to leave was motivated by the "lawlessness" of the Trump administration.
"The decision to leave was very abrupt," Momodou Taal, a student at Cornell University, told Middle East Eye's Big Picture Podcast.
"It became increasingly clear to me that even with a court order, my safety was not going to be guaranteed."
Last month, Taal launched legal proceedings against US President Donald Trump to stop his attempt at deporting international students and scholars who support the Palestinian cuase and have been protesting against the war on Gaza.
Taal's attorneys said Trump officials had asked the 31-year-old to turn himself in and were planning to revoke his student visa. So he fled.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
"I could not walk around New York City with my head held high and not have the fear of being bungled into an unmarked vehicle."
"I kept seeing the increasing lawlessness of the Trump administration," Taal said.
The 30-year-old was on the frontlines of the Trump administration's crackdown. In early March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents seized Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil off the streets of New York for his involvement in student encampment protests at Columbia University.
Last Friday, a judge ruled that Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, could not be deported from the US without a court order.
Ozturk's arrest caused widespread outrage after footage showed masked, plainclothes ICE agents picking her off the street in Somerville, Massachusetts.
In his interview with MEE, Taal reflected on watching the footage of Ozturk's arrest while in hiding in Ithaca, New York. He described the psychological toll he endured.
"I was in captivity. I had not seen sunlight for two and a half weeks. I was in hiding," he told MEE.
"I hear a loud bang and I’m thinking, 'ok they’re hear to get me'… my sleep was terrible in those two and a half weeks," he said.
Taal had tried to fight back against deportations in court. Last week, a judge denied his first motion to block the deportation of protesters.
Taal was suspended from Cornell University last year. The school threatened to revoke his study visa after student protesters shut down a careers fair attended by two arms companies, Boeing and L3Harris.
He said that once the Trump administration began deportations, he was immediately singled out. "You’re gonna be next," he recounted about messages that he was tagged in on the social media platform X.
During his initial suspension, Taal was banned from campus and from accessing the university's buildings. The suspension also prevented Taal from attending Muslim prayers on campus.
However, after weeks of legal challenges and student protests held in his name, Cornell agreed to reinstate him as a postgraduate student and reduced some restrictions imposed on him.
MEE asked Taal about comments US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made last month, saying that students who engaged in protests against Israel had "no right to a student visa" and that the US was within its right to cancel them because they would never have been granted had the US known the students’ views on Israel.
'If the condition of your visa is now conditional on having no moral conscience, then the US can keep their visas… they will continue to lose the best people'
- Momodou Taal
"I did intend to study and finish my PhD at Cornell University. I did not also ... anticipate, a genocide to start. I didn't ... anticipate that the US would not only be complicit, but arm a genocide," Taal replied when asked to react to Rubio's statements.
"If the condition of your visa is now conditional on having no moral conscience, then the US can keep their visas… they will continue to lose the best people.”
Taal refused to disclose to MEE where he was currently speaking from, citing safety concerns. But he said he has no regrets in taking part in the upswing of protests against Israel.
The war in Gaza began after the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks in southern Israel. Israel responded by launching a devastating offensive that has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children.
"I think Zionism has lost," he said. "I can never see it being salvaged. Young people particularly understand what Zionism is… fundamentally we have won the ideological struggle and it's only a matter of time until we win the material one."
Taal also said that the Trump administration’s crackdown on student visa holders should unnerve all Americans because of the threat it poses to freedom of expression and the message it sends about foreign influence in the US.
"You probably have more right to critique the US than Israel in the US. Anyone in the US should be deeply concerned about that. I thought Maga was ‘Make America Great Again,’ not Israel first," he said.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
